R--Technical/Laboratory Support for Quality Assurance Programs of APPCD and NHSRS

This modification changes the response due date from 03/08/08 to 03/21/08. THIS IS A SOURCES SOUGHT SYNOPSIS FOR WRITTEN INFORMATION ONLY. THIS IS NOT A SOLICITATION ANNOUNCEMENT FOR PROPOSALS AND NO CONTRACT WILL BE AWARDED FROM THIS ANNOUNCEMENT. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is performing a "market search" to determine potential small business sources in preparation for a future procurement. EPA has a need for a qualified contractor to provide its Air Pollution Prevention and Control Division (APPCD) and the National Homeland Security Research Center (NHSRC), on a continuing and quick-turnaround basis, with technical and laboratory support related to quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) activities for scientific research. APPCD researches air pollution prevention and control technologies for industries, electric power plants, incinerators, indoor environments, and sources of greenhouse gases. APPCD characterizes major sources of air pollution and verifies the performance of innovative technologies. APPCD has six main program areas: air toxins; fine particles; indoor air quality; ozone, and global climate change. NHSRC provides expertise and products that are widely used to prevent, prepare for, and recover from public health and environmental emergencies arising from terrorist threats and incidents. It has five main program areas: decontamination and consequence management; water infrastructure protection; threat consequence and assessment research; technical assistance for emergency response; and testing and evaluation efforts. Specific areas to be addressed in capability packages are as follows: (1) QA and technical reviews of research documents such as QA project plans, quality management plans, standard operating procedures, environmental data collection (environmental, chemical, and process), computer models and software (environmental, chemical, process, technological, and economic) and research publications (reports, articles, and presentations); (2) assessments of quality systems, technical audits, and related assessments for laboratory and field research projects involving environmental data collection; (3) laboratory support including preparing, acquiring, and/or evaluating samples (environmental, chemical, and process), assessing analytical methods, conducting special studies and investigations on QA/QC procedures; (4) technical support for quality system development including writing quality procedures, manuals, sampling and analytical methods, and editing technical publications and preparing technical information for oral presentations. Additionally, the successful contractor shall possess a familiarity with the EPA quality system and QA experience and technical experience in chemistry, computer science, chemical engineering, environmental engineering, environmental science, geographical information systems, geology, microbiology, microscopy, physics, statistics, technical editing, and toxicology. The successful contractor shall provide all necessary labor, materials and services in support of the efforts delineated by the Performance Work Statement (PWS). A draft PWS can be obtained from the OAM Website, http://www.epa.gov/oam/cinn_cmd/. It is anticipated that the contract will be a Cost Plus Fixed Fee (CPFF) Level of Effort (LOE) starting in October 2008 with a one year Base Period and four Optional Periods of 12 months each. Approximately 1,100 LOE hours are anticipated for each contract period for a total of 5,500 hours. The applicable NAICS code is 541712 (research and development in the physical, engineering, and life sciences [except biotechnology]) with a size standard of 500 persons. ANY INTERESTED SMALL BUSINESS FIRM should submit a capability statement which demonstrates the firm's ability to perform the key requirements described above. Standard company brochures will not be considered a sufficient response to this Sources Sought Synopsis. In the capabilities statements, contractors should provide their size status for the above referenced NAICS code, (i.e. large, small) and whether or not they are a certified hubzone, 8(a), women-owned, small disadvantaged and/or disabled veteran owned concern. The EPA reserves the right to set this action aside for small businesses. Responses to the above should be submitted to (Cindy Schweibold, US EPA, 26 West Martin Luther King Dr., Cincinnati, OH 45268, or schweibold.cindy@epa.gov) no later than 15 calendar days from date of posting. A separate synopsis will be issued for the Request for Proposal (RFP) resulting from this sources source synopsis.